Networks elements in a communications network can experience various problems when initializing on power-up or when restarting after a power failure or a low-voltage brownout. Low-voltage brownouts, for example, can affect the functionality of a regional processor (e.g., CPU), or any tributary card that depends upon the regional processor for local control settings, often referred to as provisioning data. Such problems can result from programming errors in a boot-load director or in any program that the boot-load director program attempts to install. Brownout can also lead to component instability or lockup, due to a lower-than-expected voltage provided to that component. The boot-load director is, in general, the first section of code or software executed when a network element is brought into operation, and determines the subsequent loading of other software, such as a boot-load program or an application program. A subsequently loaded program can then assume control from the boot-loader director for loading software. Another problem that may occur during initialization and restart operations is for executing software to become permanently looped. Such frozen or runaway tasks often require restarting the software.
As an illustrative example of a restart situation in a network environment, consider a system that has a new and unproven version of the boot-load director installed. If the newly installed code of the boot-load director has an error or a code portion that is incompatible with another part of the network element, then the first attempt to execute will fail. The user may then be unable to get the network element operating well enough to reload the previous version of the boot-load director. Thus, there is a known problem in the art of efficiently and automatically restarting and reinitializing network elements during restart procedures.